Football's coming home ? digital reterritorialization, contradictions in the transnational coverage of sport and the sociology of alternative football broadcasts.

This article critically utilizes the work of Manuel Castells to discuss the issue of parallel imported broadcasts (specifically including live-streams) in football. This is of crucial importance to sport because the English Premier League is premised upon the sale of television rights broadcasts to domestic and overseas markets, and yet cheaper alternative broadcasts endanger the price of such rights. Evidence is drawn from qualitative fieldwork and library/Internet sources to explore the practices of supporters and the politics involved in the generation of alternative broadcasts. This enables us to clarify the core sociological themes of ‘milieu of innovation’ and ‘locale’ within today's digitally networked global society

Human rights, globalization and sentimental education: the case of sport

[A discussion of whether encouraging the playing of sport is intrinsically good for people, societies and countries, particularly war-torn and/or developing countries.

Scoring away from home: a statistical study of Scotland football fans at international matches in Romania and Sweden

This paper explores the logistic, social structural and affective properties of Scotland football supporters attending two types of international fixture abroad: a high prestige tournament in Sweden and a low prestige qualifier in Romania. Representative samples of supporters were canvassed on both occasions, and the accruing data subjected to univariate and bivariate analysis. The findings indicate that the comparatively positive fan identity of Scottish fans, as boisterous and internationalist, is premised on socio-cultural rather than social structural factors. Principal changes in the Scottish support relate to the growing number of white-collar fans, and the proportion of fans affiliated instrumentally to the official Scotland Travel Club. The major continuity with the past concerns the fans' preference for autonomous methods of organizing travel and accommodation requirements

Sport mega-events, urban football carnivals and securitised commodification: the case of the English Premier League

This paper explores the interrelationships of security policies and processes of commodification with respect to contemporary sport mega events (SMEs). First, it is argued that we need to move beyond conventional understandings of SMEs, as specific occasions fixed in time and space. Instead, we should examine more diffuse forms of SME, as illustrated by major sport leagues such as the English Premier League (EPL). Secondly, the paper discusses the popular cultures that have long been intrinsic to urban sporting spaces and which have been marginalised by strategies of securitisation and commodification since the late 1980s. Thirdly and fourthly, the principal juridico-political and political-economic forces that prevail within the EPL, and UK football in general, are examined-notably in regard to constrictive legislation and advanced security technologies, alongside policies of neo-liberal governmentalisation and urban revanchism. Fifthly, the paper explores expressions and irruptions of public unease, transgression and conflict within UK football settings with respect to these forces

Sport spectators and the social consequences of commodification: critical perspectives from Scottish football

The commodification of football has been the subject of substantial sociological debate but has received relatively limited scrutiny in terms of sustained comparative empirical research. This article draws heavily on interviews with supporter groups, journalists, and officials in Scottish football to examine a range of issues relating to fan experiences and understandings of football's commodification. The author examines how fans respond to their labeling as customers and considers whether they are alienated or marginalized from football in economic and cultural terms. The author explores how the game's commodification can be at the expense of themost deserving supporters and undermines the future reproduction of fan communities. The author concludes by arguing for a nuanced sociological reading of supporters in regard to commodification, which appreciates both the fans' market pragmatism and their normative critiques of distributive justice in the game

Back to the future: an ethnography of Ireland's football fans at the 1994 World Cup finals in the USA

This article examines from an ethnographic perspective Irish soccer fan activities at the 1994 World Cup Finals in the United States. An introductory discussion notes the limited previous study of Irish soccer fans, and critically assesses the relationship of Irish nationalism to sport. The activities of Irish fans are then examined in relation to their siting in New York and Orlando; the minimal level of sectarian/republican politics imbuing their supporter culture; their numerical prevalence at the tournament, in the light of reported ticket scarcities; the absence of football hooliganism at USA '94; and the interaction of Irish fans with other supporter cultures, 'carnival' fans and otherwise. The relative youth of Irish soccer culture is noted, and its impact upon the limited levels of fan participation and organization at matches. However, the concluding observations point out to four areas in which Irish supporter identities display some forms of maturation: internal fan criticisms of the team's style; critical commentaries on the tournament's organization; effective instances of evading profiteering during the tournament; and, most importantly, how the soccer culture helps to promote a fresh sense of Irish identity, as beyond nation-state boundaries or territorial claims

Participant observation and research into football hooliganism: reflections on the problems of entree and everyday risks

This paper discusses the author's fieldwork experiences while initiating and undertaking substantive participant observation research with two rival groups of Scottish football hooligans ("football casuals"). Key problems examined are those that emerge from attempted entree into the hooligan subcultures and the everyday risks of comparative research with violent fans. The author provides regular illustrations to highlight how dangers such as the researcher's personal characteristics, lack of guiding sociological literature, and interaction with police officers can threaten the urban ethnographic project. The resultant ambivalence of some research subjects toward the author is interpreted as one reason for minimizing the prospect of his "going native.

The Beijing 2008 olympics: Examining the interrelations of China, globalization, and soft power

© 2015 Academia Europaea.This article explores the national and global significance and impact of Beijing's hosting of the 2008 summer Olympic Games. The discussion is organized into four main parts. First, I locate the 2008 Beijing Olympics in the context of wider processes of globalization; in particular, I explore how China 'glocalized' the Olympics, by giving the event distinctive meanings that were then experienced by global television audiences. Second, I employ the concept of 'soft power' to explore how, in hosting the event, China sought to advance its international influence and appeal; I introduce the concept of 'soft disempowerment' to examine how there may have been some negative impacts for China in staging the Olympics. Third, I discuss issues of security surrounding the Beijing Olympics, given the growing focus on such questions for sport mega-events in general following the 9/11 attacks in 2001. Fourth, I outline some of the key issues regarding sporting legacies for China, following the 2008 Olympics, with particular reference to Chinese football

Football and the politics of carnival: an ethnographic study of Scottish fans in Sweden

At football's 1992 European Championship Finals in Sweden, the 5,000 Scottish fans ('The Tartan Army') attending, won the UEFA 'Fair Play' award for their friendly and sporting conduct. The award appears to be the culmination of a major 'change' in the international identity of the Scottish supporter over the last two decades. However, as this paper seeks to demonstrate, the nature of Scottish support's behaviour and cultural identity is the subject of strong contestation among the Scottish football and policing authorities, the media and the supporters themselves. In the first part of the paper, the socio-historical and logistical background to the tournament is outlined. Key issues her relate to whether the fans accept the 'official' position that their behaviour and outlook has changed significantly, and what significance may be ascribed to 'anti-hooligan' legislation. The conflict may partly be explained by the auhorities' and fans' differing definitions of the supporters' social 'carnival' at matchs, and whether this is considered to be ritualised (safe) or excessive (potentially disorderly). The second half of the paper chronicles, through participant observation and interview research, the social performances and discourses of the Scottish supporters during the Swedish tournament. Internal divisions are noted, relating to region, domestic club affiliation, age, and social class/wealth; these are gradually overcome through collectivisation, around shared attitudes of sociable drinking, anti-Englishness, masculine identity and gregarious fandom. Also highlighted is the symbolic battle for control over the representation of the fans' identity and behaviour, between media, fans and the authorities. The paper concludes by noting that this conflict has continued beyond the tournament, through the authorities' recolonising of the fans' victorious identity, and the media's challenge to their sportsmanship in defeat

Sport, transnational peacemaking, and global civil society: exploring the reflective discourses of "sport, development and peace" project officials

In recent years, there has been considerable political and public interest in the "sport, development and peace" (SDP) sector. SDP agencies employ sport as an interventionist tool to promote peace, reconciliation, and development in different locations across the world. This article examines how SDP officials view their work and the sector in general. The analysis situates the SDP sector in relation to contemporary transnational processes and the global civil society. The article draws heavily on wide-ranging primary qualitative research (interviews and fieldwork) with SDP officials who operate at different levels (from very local projects through to transnational SDP agencies) and in different settings, notably in Europe, the Middle East, the Balkans, and South Asia. Four key sociological themes were identified within the discourses of SDP officials, such as, the transnational ethics of SDP work, the anthropolitics of practice (notably in relation to user groups), the national and transnational 'interrelationships of SDP officials, and SDP officials' wider, transnational sector relationships. Various issues within each theme are identified and explored. The article concludes by reflecting on how analysis of these discourses serves to enhance understanding of transnational processes and the global civil society and, by suggesting some ways in which the SDP sector may be positively transformed